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By Maduka Nweke
As part of effort to make Lagos attain its smart city status, the State Government recently began the demolition of areas seen to have defaced the city. This activity was seen to be against the interest of the residents who are not happy that no soft landing was given the people prior to the demolition.
One of the residents of the area, Mr. Odunayo Ojekute said the situation the country is now, needs sympathy for the citizens. “For Government to displace her citizens meanwhile they are not sure of two square meals daily has put them in a complex problem to say the least. Governments should have the citizens’ interest at heart. By demolishing the houses, government has created more hardship for them when it suppose to be ameliorating their problems,” he said.
Another victim, Mrs Belinda Asuquo, a hotelier and bar owner said, “This is where I trained all my children. Three of them are now in the University. Two out of the three are about to finish their program. Government is not considerate at all. Why should consequences of an action not be weighed to find how the people will be affected? It is wrong on the part of Government,”he said.
Landlords and residents at Ikota slum, in the Lekki area of Lagos State, recently were thrown into panic as officials suspected to be working with the state government alongside men of the state police command have been demolishing structures in the area.
According to a research by a news medium, it was gathered that the affected victims, in a bid to protect their property, protested against the action but the policemen, in an attempt to disperse them, allegedly fired bullets to scare the demonstrators.
Some of the residents from the area, said the property marked were illegal structures, adding that the government was demolishing it for an urban renewal project. One of them said, “Most of the victims are the people who built their property at the location illegally. Where they built their property was not allocated to them by the government. They just came into the community, probably gave somebody money and just built their property without appropriate documentation.
“The police have been shooting sporadically. It appears that they are trying to ward off protesters from preventing the demolition exercise. Most of the victims there are known as Maroko resettlement; they were resettled at three locations including Ikota. As the demolition is ongoing, policemen have been shooting sporadically and as they are demolishing, they are sand-filling at the same time.”
